Amy Clark, Principal, shared that PD started on August 2 and is going well. New teachers are doing well and well supported by deeper bench of DCI's. We had higher teacher attrition this year than normal, all leaving for life changes (have a child, need to be closer to home, etc.) and still have three teaching positions and one nurse to fill. We have a pipeline.

Amy shared the school's academic priorities for the year ahead. First and most important is Accelerated Learning for all students. We are focused on accelerating learning and not remediating learning. We will teach grade level content and assess to understand what kids do not know from previous grades. This is the big goal, we will hear that word a lot this year...acceleration. This is the only way we can get all kids to grade level and not perpetuate the learning loss. Dale posed a question - you are a 5th grade math teacher and your scholars have not had a skill they should have learned in 4th grade which they need to learn the new content - is this going to get done? Yes, exactly. We are not teaching everything from 4th grade standards but based on unit pre assessments and diagnostics, we will be more strategic about what we are teaching prior to the unit. The assessments will help us pin point what students need to know in order to learn the new content. Rebecca added on that in addition to grade level standards, there are things that can be taught alongside of grade level standards. 

Second Priority is create and sustain culturally responsive classrooms. Amy shared a quote to help center on what this really means by Gloria Ladson Billings. We want to align our antiracism work with the work we do with students. We are now questioning and opening up dialogue around practices and terms we've used or done that may not be aligned with antiracist and culturally responsive teaching. There are three parts - focus on student learning and success, understand student cultural identity and help them develop positive identities and help them think critically. At times we have focused on one of these things and not all three and we must focus on all three. Rebecca asked about text representation and Amy there is an ongoing review of grade level texts, some grades are better than others and it will be an ongoing review to get and keep the text lists relevant and representative. Zaretta Hammond, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain is our go to text. Dale emphasized that we must keep the core instruction and ensure students are learning those things they need to be successful, Rebecca and Amy elaborated on the standards and expectations do not change but how we get there and the environment we create is what will. 

The third priority is replacing DRIVE with VIPER values which are adult and student facing values. They are both true to who we are and aspirational to who we want to be. We used our former DRIVE values, a set of adult values we made a few years ago and the graduate profile and high school values to create these values. These values represent who we are and want to be with the commitment statements. Rebecca asked who was involved in writing them - both veritas school teams came together in 2019 to start this work and more recently we built on that at VPCS with the school leadership team this summer. The staff response has been great, we had teams break out and dig into what it would look like for us to embody this value, what would students be doing, what would teachers be doing.

New teacher PD has begun. There are a couple of open roles left and we are attempting to fill them. Everyone we have hired is awesome and we are really looking forward to the school year. There are 3 teaching roles (Special ED ELA, ESL, and a nurse).

Three main priorities for Summer PD to get us back to how we were doing in 2019-2020 before the shut down.
1) Accelerate, don't remediate learning
2) Create and sustain culturally responsive classrooms (specifically want to make our anti-racism work not feel separate from the work we do with students)
3) VIPER Community values to replace DRIVE. (Vision, Identity, Perseverance, Empowerment, Relationships)  These are for both students and adults and aligned to our portrait of a graduate work for the high school.

 

The committee brainstormed what goals of the AA committee could look like:
Outcome/learning goals (should have growth goal in addition to achievement goal)
Process goals (ex: implementation of planning meetings)
Gather some qualitative data around the community values that represent student voice/experience

Next step: Have DCIs come to AA meeting in September to finalize the quantitative goals, and have a draft ready for September meeting.

In many ways, this is a moment in time to leverage the strength that Veritas has always had. Accelerating learning. The team feels uniquely positioned to do this well, and leverage the new knowledge and tools they have to get even better at it.

The committee discussed goals related to this priority and educating the board in our antiracism, culturally responsive teaching priorities. Amy suggested that her team could do some trainings.  Rebecca asked what a goal around acceleration might be. Jonathan shared that we will have data early on, this might give a picture of what the accelerated needs are. The timeline for MCAS data and other sources is probably mid-September so we can ask the team to present data that will help us to develop a goal around accelerated learning. 

Rachel shared that there are two shifts to network team roles. Ashley Martin will shift to a Director of Program Development to support the high school planning and development and documenting our model of school supports and Jonathan Swan will shift to Director of School Supports to supervise both principals and school programs ensuring compliance and supports to meet goals and to encourage stronger collaboration across both schools.

Jonathan will be shifting to be a Director of School Support, which will include developing and managing Principals as well as the work he has been doing tin student support (and developing Principals to do that).
Ashley will shift from a CAO role to a Director of New Program Development to build out the programs of study for the High School and onboard a new Principal for the High School. She will also be documenting what it means to be a Veritas Prep School.